Best Poems of 1993

Carlos Drummond de Andrade ….. Motionless Faces
Carlos Drummond de Andrade ….. Siesta
Carlos Drummond de Andrade ….. Souvenir of the Ancient World
Carlos Drummond de Andrade ….. Travelling in the Family
Rae Armantrout ….. You Float
John Ash ….. Braid
John Ash ….. The Monuments
John Ash ….. A Novel
John Ash ….. Salon Pieces
John Ash ….. The Second Lecture: An over-excite man tells us about some clouds
John Ash ….. The Seventeenth Sermon
Bill Berkson ….. Ivesiana
Bill Berkson ….. Russian New Year
Linda Bierds ….. The Stillness, the Dancing
Michael Brownstein ….. War
Joseph Bruchac ….. Lady’s Slippers By Deer Pond
Augusto de Campos ….. Caracol
Lewis Carroll ….. The Hunting of the Snark
Catullus ….. poem 85: “I hate & love.”
Chinese Courtesan’s Song (Yuan Dynasty) ….. To the tune “Red Embroidered Shoes”
Clark Coolidge ….. “car parked up pocket starling”
Clark Coolidge ….. four poems: “contact back” / “green left sound bore add” / “time coal hum base” / “quasi”
Clark Coolidge …. “of”
Clark Coolidge ….. three poems: “tions” / “is so” / “an un”
Clark Coolidge ….. “tion / inertia / ity”
Clark Coolidge ….. “erything”
Robert Cording ….. Cardinal
Jean Day ….. Gas
Tim Donnelly ….. “you know the feeling”
Russell Edson ….. A Journey Through the Moonlight
Russell Edson ….. The Retirement of the Elephant
Edward Field ….. Prologue
Paul Goodman ….. Long Lines on the Left Bank
Paul Goodman ….. Oscar Williams
Jorie Graham ….. Salmon
Ronald Gross ….. Why Negroes Prefer Treatment as Human Beings
Basuki Gunawan ….. Night
William J. Harris ….. Hey Fella Would You Mind Holding This Piano A Moment
Hastipaka ….. “Rain slants steadily”
Hawaiian song ….. Song to Greet the King
Miroslav Holub ….. Alphabet
Miroslav Holub ….. A Dog in the Quarry
Miroslav Holub ….. The Fly
Miroslav Holub ….. The New House
Miroslav Holub ….. Suffering
Miroslav Holub ….. What the Heart Is Like
Ted Hughes ….. Crow’s Undersong
The Dajak of Borneo, Indonesia ….. The Creation
from Flores Island, Indonesia ….. Creation Song
from the Sumbawa of Indonesia ….. Rejection of a Lover
Gogo Ivanovski ….. Sadness and Rain
Kathleen Jamie ….. one of Katie’s poems from A Flame in Your Heart (#35): “He is 25”
Richard Jones ….. Leaving Town after the Funeral
Andrea Kelsey ….. Power Does Not Know Time
Brendan Kennelly ….. LIghtning
Kuan Tao-sheng ….. Married Love
Li Ch’ing Chao ….. The Day of Cold Food
Mei Yao Ch’en ….. An Excuse for Not Returning the Visit of a Friend
from the Middle English Bestiary ….. The Siren
Tatsuji Miyoshi ….. Great Aso
Modoc song fragment ….. Introduction: “I / the song”
Natchez story ….. The Cannibal’s Seven Sons
Pablo Neruda ….. Sexual Water
Sharon Olds ….. Summer Solstice, New York City
Pima song ….. Rain Song
Pima song ….. Mouse Song
Pima song ….. Song of the Black Tail Deer
Francis Ponge ….. Fire
Francis Ponge ….. Rain
Charles Reznikoff ….. from Autobiography, New York: V, XVII, XXVII
Charles Reznikoff ….. from Autobiography, New York: XXXV: Going West
Charles Reznikoff ….. from Autobiography: Hollywood: II
Charles Reznikoff ….. The Belly
Charles Reznikoff ….. from Kaddish: part VI
Charles Reznikoff ….. In Memoriam, S. R.
Charles Reznikoff ….. from Uriel Accosta: 30
Adrienne Rich ….. Dedications
Stephen Rodefer ….. from Pretext
Floyd Salas ….. Steve Nash, Homosexual Transient, Executed …
Ron Schreiber ….. diagnosis (4-10-86)
Su Tung P’o ….. The Terrace in the Snow
an anonymous Swiss child ….. “When the rain falls”
William Talcott ….. “One morning”
Tu Fu ….. Banquet at the Tso Family Manor
Tu Fu ….. Full Moon
Tu Fu ….. New Moon
Tu Fu ….. To Wei Pa, a Retired Scholar
Tu Fu ….. Random Pleasures (VII)
Vlada Urosevilk ….. Forbidden Zone
Paul Vangelisti ….. Event 24: John the Baptist
Julia Vinograd ….. For the Young Men Who Died of AIDS
Wang Ch’ing-hui ….. To the tune “The River is Red”
John Yau ….. Album
Yoruba song ….. Leopard
Zuni definitions ….. Moon, month

Another list of poems I have hand copied, this batch from the year 1993. As I had been doing since 1989 I read a lot of poetry and kept on hand a batch of placemarks. When I would read a poem that struck me I would slip a placemark in next to it so I could return to the poem for a reread. If after a few readings I decided I couldn’t leave the poem behind I would hand copy it.

I was attending UC Berkeley in 1993. John Ash was the visiting Holloway poet and I got into a workshop with him. As you can see by six of his poems appearing on the list, I enjoyed his writing. I don’t remember whether I told him I had copied out his poems. I probably didn’t. Kenneth Rexroth’s translations of ancient Chinese poets got me on an ancient Chinese poet kick for awhile. I looked for Ulli Beier’s Papua Pocket Poets because I’d loved some Beier translations that had appeared in another anthology. At least six of the poems on the list are Beier translations (the Yoruba, the creation songs from Indonesia).

Lewis Carroll’s The Hunting of the Snark is easily the longest poem I have copied out. It fills 24 pages of lined notebook paper. It’s an amazing performance and, even considering the drudgery of the physical copying, spending the time with it necessary to get it into the notebook was a pleasure.